Pickup, Michael

Auditor General of Nova Scotia

Pickup, Michael

Auditor General of Nova Scotia

Mr. Pickup is in year 5 as Auditor General of Nova Scotia. He leads an Office which reports to the Nova Scotia Legislature approximately four times a year on financial and performance audits. He and his team deliver roughly ten performance audits a year, as well as audits of the Province’s financial statements and government organizations. Mr. Pickup spent nearly a quarter of a century at the Office of the Auditor General of Canada. He taught at Carleton University and the University of Ottawa as a part-time professor.

The Auditor General is a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA), Chartered Accountant (CA). As Auditor General, Mr. Pickup has invested heavily in communication efforts to bring his team’s audit messages to legislators and other users of his Office’s work. During the last four years he has held 20 press conferences on his reports; delivered 25 separate videos on various audits for You Tube communication; given close to 100 interviews for various television, radio, print, and online media sources; appeared on national programs such as Power and Politics and on The Weather Network; and has spoken at various national and international forums including the Institute of Internal Auditors National Conference, CPA Canada Public Sector Financial Reporting Conference, the Asian Society of Supreme Audit Institutions National Meeting, as well as various other events and forums. Mr. Pickup currently serves on CPA Canada’s Audit and Assurance Standards Board as 1 of its 14 voting members.